Daily Archives: May 24, 2016

A King in New York
Directed by Charles Chaplin
Written by Charles Chaplin
1957/UK
Attica Film Company
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Rupert Macabee: I’m so sick and tired of people asking me if I’m this, if I’m that![/box]

The country that made Charlie Chaplin a mega-star treated him pretty despicably in the end.  He got his revenge with this film.  In more ways than one.

King Shahdov (Chaplin) has fallen victim to a revolution due to his opposition to nuclear weapons.  He takes refuge in New York where he finds his Prime Minister has embezzled his large personal fortune.  He is tricked into appearing in a candid camera type TV show in the guise of a dinner party.  Soon he is the media darling and is getting large offers for commercial endorsements.  He resists at first but poverty later changes his mind.

As one of his official duties he visits a progressive school.  There he meets Rupert (Chaplin’s son Michael) who is a philosophy protege.  Rupert’s parents were Communists and are being hauled before HUAC.  Shahdov gives Rupert shelter after he runs away from school.  Shadhov is then called before the committee where he gives an impassioned speech.

Just the plot summary should give perceptive readers an idea of why I hate this movie.  It tries too hard, and fails, to be funny and contains many dreary rants, most of which Charlie shamelessly put into the mouth of his untalented son.  Chaplin never should have started talking.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtiEQ7GNens

Michael Chaplin’s rant

Time Limit
Directed by Karl Malden
Written by Henry Denker from a play by Denker and Ralph Berkey
1957/USA
Heath Productions
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Maj. Harry Cargill:  You can’t ask a man to be a hero forever. There ought to be a time limit. [/box]

This solid legal drama raises some interesting moral issues.

A JAG lawyer, Col. William Edwards (Richard Widmark), is trying to decide whether Maj. Harry Cargill (Richard Basehart) should be court-martialed for treason for collaborating with the enemy in a North Korean POW camp.  On the surface it seems obvious.  Cargill made a broadcast and signed a statement falsely accusing the US of using germ warfare and became the indoctrination officer for the men at the camp.  He also admits everything and refuses to defend himself.  But Edwards will not rest or make a decision until he finds out why Cargill turned.  Cargill isn’t talking and the other soldiers in the camp have no explanation.  Something about the consistency of their stories makes Edwards even more suspicious.

Complicating Edwards’ job is the fact that his supervising General’s son died in the same camp.  Neither the general nor Edwards’ staff sergeant (Martin Balsam) can understand why the case can’t go to trial immediately.  The rest of the movie follows Edwards’ continuing search for the truth.  With June Lockhart as Cargill’s wife. The commie foreign baddies are the same as the ones in The Manchurian Candidate!

This film is basically a filmed stage play with forays into the camp in flashback. The drama is compelling enough to carry it.  The movie asks the question “Can there be an excuse for treason?”  In the end, it doesn’t really answer it, which only makes the story more interesting.  These actors are always good and Karl Malden did a workmanlike job.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18IJ5Cu8bCM

Clip